The drowned town of Reimerswaal

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In the Oosterschelde, among the islands of Zeeland, there lay centuries ago a rich trading town: Reimerswaal. Today nothing remains but water and mud. The sea has swallowed it, and only in the tales does it live on, with bells that by tradition still toll beneath the waves.

1 The proud town in the water

Reimerswaal flourished through trade in salt, wine and madder, and counted churches, monasteries and a busy harbour. But the town lay low, ringed by sea, and always lived at odds with the water. Dike after dike was thrown up, dike after dike was breached. In the great Saint Felix flood of 1530 the surrounding land went under, and the town became an island slowly gnawed away.

2 The bells beneath the waves

What the sea once takes it seldom gives back. Storm after storm tore pieces of Reimerswaal away, until the last inhabitants left their houses and the waves closed over streets and churches. Where once the third town of Zeeland stood, only water now stretches. But the fishermen and skippers told for long after that in calm weather, if you set your ear to listen, deep beneath the Oosterschelde you could hear the bells of the drowned town tolling, as if Reimerswaal refused to vanish altogether.

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Source: Zeeland history; the loss of Reimerswaal to storm floods (1530 and later); tradition of the drowned towns.

Did you know? In the late Middle Ages Reimerswaal was, after Middelburg and Zierikzee, the third town of Zeeland. After the Saint Felix flood of 1530 and later inundations it became uninhabitable and was finally abandoned in the seventeenth century.

Heimweer.be — Europees Erfgoed Bewaard

The drowned town of Reimerswaal

1 The proud town in the water

2 The bells beneath the waves

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